Olympics

March 14 2017

Eurosport and NowThis Announce Social Content Production Partnership

March 14 2017

Discovery Communications and Group Nine Media are excited to announce a new partnership between Eurosport, Europe’s leading sports destination, and NowThis, the leading socially-distributed millennial media brand, around the production and co-distribution of sports-related social video.

This announcement represents an exciting new creative collaboration between the two companies since announcing Discovery’s $100 million investment and strategic partnership with Group Nine in October.

As part of the partnership, NowThis will act as a social video production arm for Eurosport’s Olympic coverage (Eurosport is the exclusive home of the Olympic Games in 2018-2024*). Eurosport will provide NowThis access to its vast library of sport content and will be the initial European media partner in the launch of the NowThis Sports vertical, set to launch in May. Eurosport will also be the exclusive advertising sales team for NowThis Sports in Europe.

NowThis Sports will cover the topic through the brand’s unique lens, not focusing on game highlights, but rather an entertaining and emotional look at the stories behind the athletes. NowThis has seen a great deal of success with sports-related stories among its millennial audience in the past and is excited to satisfy that appetite by dedicating an entire platform to the category.

The partnership will go into effect immediately as both companies begin working through social content plans for the 2018 Winter Olympics, as well as launch plans for NowThis Sports.

“Eurosport is dedicated to offer more premium, local and exclusive sports coverage across Europe and drive engagement with existing consumers, as well as a newer, younger mobile-first audience,” said Peter Hutton, Eurosport CEO. “This innovative partnership with NowThis, the #1 video news publisher on the social web, will allow us share our cutting-edge storytelling and connect our passionate audiences with their favorite athletes in a unique and dynamic way.”

“We couldn’t be more excited to partner with Discovery’s own Eurosport to help bring the incredible stories behind sports and the athletes who play them to the social web, beginning with the Olympics in February,” said Athan Stephanopoulos, President of NowThis. “We are keenly aware that this category is a passion point for many young people around the world. We are looking forward to the upcoming launch of NowThis Sports and to be able to put our own unique spin on our coverage of the vertical, with a global approach in mind.”

*Excludes France 2018-2020. Excludes Russia. Eurosport will be the Official Broadcaster in the UK 2018 and 2020.